Sigurd Nome (born 16 November 1911 in Øyslebø in Marnadal in the southwest of Norway, died 23 november 1970 in Oslo) was a Norwegian sculptor.
Like many other Norwegian sculptors, he started with wood carving at a very early age and exhibited a chair and a model of a carriage with two horses already in 1926. As he was only 16 years old he was two young to compete for the prices, but got a silver spoon as an encouragement.
He started at the Hjerleid School and Craft Centre in Dovre when he was 18 and studied wood-carwing there 1929–1931. After extensive art studies including the State Academy of Fine Arts from 1935-37, he first exhibited at the National Annual Autumn Exhibition in Oslo in 1937. [1]
Sigurd Nome was the sixth of twelve children. He married Ellen Marie Bjørløw and got three children, Helle, Herdis and Arild. Both his siblings and his own family were often portrayed in his sculptures, and his statues of children became coveted for publicly commissioned ornamentation all over the country.
When the Vigeland museum had a commemorative exhibition of Nome´s work in 2000, Fredrikke Schrumpf wrote in the catalogue: “A distinctive strength in Nome's work is how the sculpture both possesses general features and is at the same time a personal portrait. This duality that the sculptures contain is also seen again in Nome's children's sculpture. His own children were the model, but with Nome's shape and general expression it could be any child.”[2]
In Oslo Sigurd Nome ornamented the east facade of the Oslo City Hall with his sculpture "Rorkaren" (The Oarsman, 1945). “Gardisten” (The Royal Guard) was part of his first solo exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet 1949, and is now placed at the Huseby Leir, the base of His Majesty the King´s Guard.
Other major sculptures are “Mandalitten” in Mandal, 1966; Tromsøværingen, in Tromsø, 1969, and the monument of the 19th-century Lutheran lay minister and social reformer Hans Nielsen Hauge in Oslo 1972.
The family of the artist has donated a large collection of sculptures to Marnardal County Council. This collection is now displayed at Høgtun Kultursenter in Øyselbø.[3]
- ^ https://nkl.snl.no/Sigurd_Nome
- ^ Sigurd Nome, Vigelands-museet ISBN 82-91830-05-3
- ^ https://mamu.no/Utstillinger/Nome.html